During a typical drilling operation, a drill string is advanced to a desired location within a surface formation, and core barrels within the drill string are used to collect core samples from within the surface formation. While containing a core sample, a core barrel often weights between 70 and 80 pounds. Conventionally, following the retrieval of core samples by a core barrel, workers are required to manually support the weight of the core barrel in an angular orientation (often at about 45 degrees) that permits extraction of the core sample. Frequently, to accomplish extraction of the core sample, workers are required to position a core barrel on a table, lift a portion of the core barrel from the table, and then hammer the core barrel until the core sample is recovered. These conventional procedures are inefficient and are often associated with injuries to workers and/or damage to equipment.
Accordingly, there is a need in the pertinent art for apparatus and methods for supporting a core sample in a manner that permits extraction of a core sample from a core barrel while reducing and/or eliminating the manual handling and space requirements of conventional techniques.